MitchW
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Posts posted by MitchW
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I think this is Matthew Schneier's best (double) review yet; in it, he reviews both Saga and Cove (fwiw, I did have an early reservation at Cove, and decided I wasn't going to like it, so it was canceled).
I did think of Sneakeater after reading the review, as he and I often agreed that we like entrêes more than bites (as well as not liking share plates - or sharing, for that matter).
QuoteMcGarry may have picked up his hay-smoking technique for his pièce-de-resistance squab working in a restaurant in Belgium, but his bird — already a hard sell for any pigeon-wary New Yorkers — put me in mind more of the animal’s essential animalness than I’d have liked. It came with bitter lettuces dressed with squab vinaigrette and a mushroom fricassee scattered with chips of dehydrated squab jus. By the time the curious desserts started arriving — parsley-and-gooseberry granita with rose-scented cream, an apple mille-feuille whose pastry had been swapped for cinnamon-toast tofu skin — we were exhausted.
As an aside, I had hay-smoked duck some 20 years ago in Paris, probably just about when McGarry started cooking at home - at age 3.
Quotewhy did Saga leave me wanting more? If I wish McGarry were a little more intent on the whims of his customers, I wish Mitchell were a little less. His cooking is so much more interesting than the tired playbook of tasting-menu voluptuousness dictates. It’s a snappy and fabulous sally to open a menu with cornbread, in the form of a scallop-edged tartlet, a fine confit of chicken in its golden heart. It’s dutiful, and a little boring, to then spackle it with caviar.
His fried fish has been so upscaled — Japanese madai, tempura-fried, dusted with dehydrated hot-sauce powder — that it seems like a ghostly shadow of itself, neither salty nor spicy enough. And (to paraphrase the old joke) such small portions.
As an(other) aside, wasn't Wylie doing tempura-fried dogfish, and dusitng it with dehydrated vinegar, at the late, lamented Alder?
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11 hours ago, SethG said:
Only complaint is unless they install a vestibule or something I won't sit at the bar in the winter months again. I can do without the rush of frigid air every thirty seconds when someone opens the door. Our once-hot plates literally felt like they'd come out of a refrigerator after a few blasts.
Cute story: We walked over the night after Wilfred's dinner posted above, on Tuesday, sans reservation. We like to sit at the bar, and not at the seats close to the door, but from the middle over toward the kitchen. They're usually able to accommodate, but the bar was almost full - the only seats left were by the door. I said we'd rather not, so instead they sat us a table in the dining room. Shrimp croquettes were new to us, and great - they fry really well here.
Chef comped us that Cara Cara salad, which was quite nice.
I know Cervo's has a vestibule, but I think because of the step up to get into Eel Bar, they're not able to do that there.
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43 minutes ago, backyardchef said:
Beautiful crumb @MitchW
Thanks! Tastes good, too, but I really need to try it in more of a loaf form, because this is basically not great to use for sandwiches.
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I thought I might have taken this bread a little too far:
I think I actually raised the oven temperature 25°, rather than lowering it when I took the cover off the Dutch oven. But it all turned out okay:
Ken Forkish's same-day white bread.
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Ekiola definitely great. As mentioned above, they're the sole importers of the cheese, and it has that lovely fruitiness to it.
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Though I've never posted, Eel Bar has been in regular rotation for us almost since it opened. Once every few weeks at least. Since we sit at the bar, it's way more comfortable, for us at least, than Cervo's counter.
The fried potatoes now are some of the best, in a non-French fry sort of way...they're bigger, triple-cooked, and just great. We usually get them to share on the main with the meatballs, which are also pretty damn good.
And when they have a special...
like these fried smelts, I find them hard to pass up. The grilled quail, when it's on the menu, is another fave.
And yes, lovely service.
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6 hours ago, small h said:
I thought at first it was a just re-lyric-ed Streets of Philadelphia, but no.
More along the lines of 41 Shots, but yeah, the title made me think for a second.
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Darnold has certainly played these last couple of games at an elite level.
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33 minutes ago, small h said:
I use a food processor for the butter when I make pie crust. Could that work for you? (You have to cut it up first, of course.)
It could, but there are any number of scone recipes deriding the use of the processor, claiming it makes for a not as light and airy scone.
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Can't read but I know he's opening his new store in Napa this week.
I canceled my bean club membership a while ago - just had too many beans, and now they're easy enough to find the ones I want at Formaggio Essex or even Union Market.
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Not exactly dessert, but:
Scones, with currants, hot out of the oven 10 minutes ago, to go with a second cup of coffee. Made via the grate the frozen butter method, which is très annoying.
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17 hours ago, Wilfrid said:
Okay, a whisky-based Martinez. Sounds good.
Maybe, but with 6 times that amount of sweet vermouth?
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There’s really never a bad time for a well-made Martini.
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I have tickets for that also - oh well.
Lucinda - at...Lucinda's!
Two days prior, she played an in-store at Rough Trade Below (at Rockefeller Plaza). That was a nice ticket, as it was under $20, and came with her new CD, autographed.
While her mobility issues suck, her voice is still great, and of course her lyrics are fantastic. Her dad really rubbed off on her.
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Marcella's Lemon Roast Chicken:
Though I was not careful when turning the bird (hence the ripped skin), the chicken stuffed with two lemons stays amazingly moist, including the breast meat.
This was a Bobo bird, dry brined for only a few hours, as it was both purchased and cooked yesterday. Wing tips and drumstick ends went into a pot of stock I was making with chicken parts/bones saved in the freezer. The Bobo is nice as it comes with head, neck, feet, gizzard, heart and liver.
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On 1/18/2026 at 7:07 PM, mongo said:
it's not maine uni per se i have questions about--i've had it before as well. i'm just not sure about the likely quality at places showing me ads on facebook.
FWIW, we ate at SoPo's fish market and it was quite good.
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On 1/18/2026 at 10:34 PM, Evelyn said:
My other source is also very good- https://www.regalisfoods.com/products/maine-bafun-uni?variant=38130516754629 But they seem to run out quickly. And their shipping can be pricey.
The nice thing about Regalis is they always have something that comes with "free" shipping. And then anything else you order comes with that free shipping as well. It's how I got those nice truffles last month, along with a tin of caviar and free shipping.
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7 hours ago, splinky said:
I just need to say that Creedmoor overlooks Alley Pond Park not Cunningham Park
Creedmoor - the perfect insane asylum, in some people's opinion!
Then again, if one doesn't know the difference between Greenland and Iceland, what's a few miles in Queens?
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I have lower back pain every day. And that’s after disc surgery and fusion like 5 years ago, which did cure leg pain. Then like 2 years ago I had an epidural which worked great for like 6 - 8 months. Now we just try to get to the gym 4 or 5 times a week, which helps.
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1 hour ago, small h said:
Yep. I got confused and thought, must be ESCB, but that was a tiki place. Mais non! It became a tiki place, Painkiller. Now it's, what, East Side Vape Pens and Lottery Tickets?
Yeah, they will do bespoke weed for you.
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Actually, doing a little looking up, I guess PKNY opened where East Side Company Bar once was as well.
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Any good bartender should be able to do that, no?
Perhaps Painkiller, which was located where The Pickle Guys once were.
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Huge Niners’ fan, too.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DTdvbhYkXfF/?igsh=NzE2am9zcGlzeHo=
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Cool article. I was lucky enough to see Tom a number of times; not with Television, unfortunately, but playing guitar with the Patti Smith Group.
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What are you listening to
in Music
Posted
Walked by the other night:
And listened to this: